Where's the day gone........

Day off today and this morning I felt a sudden urge to get creative. Anything to avoid doing the house work and washing!
I've had it in the back of my mind to make a ring for myself and simply never got around to it so today it happened!

It wasn't all smooth sailing though - the silver got the dreaded fire scale when I soldered it which meant lots of extra filing and sanding - for a pretty simple design I've spent the best part of the day on it! It's not perfect but I'm not going to point out the other faults - can't see 'em when I'm wearing it anyway, so I'm happy with the day's efforts. Pin It

Spring is sprung - well nearly......

Over at the Beading forum in the metal & wirework section we are having a pendant swap. The theme was "Spring".
I decided to try metal etching again but my attempts didn't work out on my first try, so I abandoned that project.
My second try was this pendant ...my thinking was "Spring Showers" and I remembered the kid's poem we used to chant, but after finishing it I was told the mailing address of my swap partner and she lives in North Queensland. Well somehow I think that this pendant is not appropriate ... I figure they would be happy with rain up there - not sure if they're in drought or not but thought I'd better err on the side of caution....The pendant would probably be better of staying here in Perth where we've had a week of torrential rain. I wish it would go away so I can get some washing dry!
Luckily I've been able to rework my first attempt and will post a pic. of that once the swaps complete. Pin It

Year of Jewellery Week 21

Well I'm behind on the YOJ, but well, never mind!

Used one of my newer tools again for Week 21's offerings. I'm really addicted to tools ;)
I got an Industrial tube wringer and it corrugates thin metal sheet. It wasn't designed for that but some bright spark started using it for metal instead of toothpaste tubes. Who'd 'av thought it?! I already posted the silver earrings at the front on the YOJ blog but I've made the copper one's since then. I had lots of fun with this and hope to do some more.

These pieces are going into a new shop opening locally in a couple of weeks called "Behind the Monkey". For local Perthites keep an eye out for it in Beaufort Street - it will feature some of the work of local artisans. Very cool...... Pin It

Ripples, Depths & Shallows.

Week 16 of the YOJ is Ripples Depths & Shallows. I had a creative block with this one plus I was in a hurry to get it finished before I go away for a long weekend. I'm heading off to sunny Queensland (across the other side of the country!) for a flying visit to help celebrate my niece's 21st Birthday.
I wanted to try some etching but that will have to wait. Instead, I hammered some pre cut sterling oval discs, lightly domed them, put the holes in (I've got some cool hole-making pliers that make that job easy) and joined them with jumprings to make this bracelet. As luck would have it - it fits me perfectly!
It was a first for me as I used Liver of Sulphur for the first time to oxidise the piece to represent the depths & shallows. Wow, was this fun or what! I had dabbled with oxidising metal with an egg but this was so quick in comparison! I was chucking every bit of scrap metal I could find in to the LOS to blacken it just so i could scrub it back with the steel wool. Yes, I need to get a life - I know! Pin It